An 11-year-old schoolboy who did not have money for a bus fare surcharge introduced for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics was forced to walk six kilometres home in sub-zero temperatures, his family said.
The story of Riccardo Z has attracted nationwide media coverage, including on the front page of Italy’s most circulated daily paper, Corriere della Sera, amid concern about price gouging for the 6-22 February Games.
Local transport company Dolomiti Bus has increased the daily fare for a bus route to Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the Olympics venues, to €10, in return for more frequent services during the Winter Olympics and the 6-15 March Paralympics.
The bus fare surcharge, running from 23 January to 17 March, has hit occasional users like Riccardo, but does not apply to annual or monthly ticket holders or people with Winter Games accreditation passes.
The boy boarded the bus on Tuesday on his way back from school with a bundle of regular €2.50 tickets, but was denied entry by the driver after he could not come up with the difference for the higher fare.
“The driver told him, if you don’t have the money, you have to get off and walk home… he didn’t even let him pay with four of his bundle tickets,” the boy’s grandmother Chiara Balbinot said.
Ms Balbinot, a lawyer, has filed a complaint before the local prosecutor’s office for the crime of child abandonment.
She said her grandson got home wet, freezing and traumatised after walking on an icy cycle path by the main road but was now doing fine.
The bus company said it had set up a commission to “rigorously” examine what had happened, and that the driver employed by a subcontractor had been suspended.
Ms Balbinot said there was a wider issue about locals being burdened with extra costs for the Winter Olympics.
“I can understand having different rates for tourists and visitors, but that residents only guilty of being caught in the middle of Olympic traffic should also pay extra… is unfathomable,” she said.